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Dirtbag Economics

• August 2015
• Hi Steph Simple Living Climb Travel

Hi Steph,
I have wanderlust. I want to travel the world to climb everywhere- but I have very little money. How did you make enough money for food and gas while living out of your car? Do you have any tips on earning enough to support yourself and a pet?
Alicia

Hi Alicia,
In my early days of living out of the car (with Fletch), I waited tables to earn money. The trick is to be very frugal. At this time I was only working 8 months a year, because the restaurants in Moab shut down in the winter. So I spent money on gas, food and car and health insurance, but not much else. I very gradually acquired used climbing gear and occasionally I’d buy some clothes at a thrift store. This was before cell phones and smart phones and all this other expensive stuff that has become a necessity….

Although I earned very little money, I never got in debt, and I always made sure I had a savings cushion for unexpected emergencies like a breakdown or a vet emergency. I didn’t go to the doctor ever, but Fletch of course did for shots and if she ever got hurt or sick. That’s super important.

In terms of food, I ate a lot of burritos: beans are really cheap, and I kept a bag of flour and an old rolling pin in my car, and a little square of thin plywood. So for dinner, I would mix up some dough and roll out the tortillas. Really delicious, really cheap, and if you are camping with other people they will get really excited and start cooking up a pretty deluxe bean filling with lots of vegetables, and they will probably even have beer and salsa which they will happily give you to share your amazing torts! So making fresh tortillas from scratch at a campground can be a very good way to make stone soup 🙂
Steph